The Wheels on the Bus Spin Round, and Round, and Round

In 1883, the Civil Rights Act  of 1875, which segregated trains, hotels, and other public spaces, was ruled unconstitutional (a national law).  Almost 100 years later, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a public bus to a white passenger on December 1, 1955.  Local ordinances in Montgomery allowed the bus driver to assign seats and thus not comply with Constitutional law.  Thus, she was arrested and ignited the over year long Montgomery Bus Boycott.

As discussed in class, local law often acts as a loophole to federal law.  Rosa Parks, according to federal law, committed no crime (as the court later ruled).  However, the people of Montgomery needed to protest public buses to earn a right that was actually already theirs.  Odd?  Well, yeah!  Racism is odd!

Foner tells of such protests far before the 1950s: "Hundreds took part in sit-ins that integrated horse drawn public streetcars in cities across the South" (544).  Even though hundreds of people in the 1800s protested, 100 years later thousands of African Americans carpooled, walked, or biked to work in order to not ride busses.  The struggle was long and hard, and yet, the 14th amendment protected them all along.  It states: "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States."  Obviously, this amendment was not properly upheld from the time of its publication and people suffered for it.  History proves that laws do not always protect people when hatred abounds.


Thanks, Rosa, for fighting for what was yours.  I'm sorry the fight was necessary.  

Rosa Parks in 1955 after refusing to give up her seat on a public bus.  She was not the first in her fight for recognition of  her Constitutional right of equality as a citizen.